Went to a barn sale last weekend. Something you don’t see everyday when you live in a big city. But we got out of the SF Bay Area and spent the weekend in Nevada. I guess it might be more common in rural America to see a barn sale. The location was a cute little berry farm and a barn with a few antique venders. I was more interested in the tractor I saw off to the side of the driveway. I just love tractors. They are usually well used and left out in the elements. It was around noon time, not the best for dramatic lighting. The sky was clear blue, also a negative for creating any drama. Hey, that’s what they made Photoshop for… LOL. I know, some Photo Film Camera guy just cringed in disgust. Don’t get me wrong, I love old school photography. I just find it relaxing for me to be able to play with exposures and filters within PS. If it looks like crap, just hit command Z, and try something else. The goal for me is exploration. Find new techniques that I can carry over into my daily workflow as a Creative Director.

On a recent excursion to Halfmoon Bay, CA I took two interesting snap shoots. One was a reference texture photo of pealing paint for my stock photo texture file. You have to love textures. The more organic the better. The other photo was of a mailbox. Lots of colors. Alone, each photo lacked pizzazz. So I start to play in Photoshop. I approach it like a painting. I cut past, layer mask, and tweak things till I have something I like. Here is the finished photo

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There are those purist that only feel HDR (High Dynamic Range) photos are achieved from multiple exposures. But you don’t always have HDR in mind when you shoot. Especially if your shooting for your own image catalog. So, where do you start. There are commercially available Photoshop filters that let you accomplish faux HDR from a single image. One example might be ReDynamix, it looks good but I haven’t tested it out. I started out with some canned PS Actions I downloaded from the internet. Mixed results, and some interesting outcomes. Nevertheless, I wanted a specific look. I hate that little voice in my head that says, “I’ll know it when I see it.” Found an interesting HDR Tutorial online. Played around with what I learned in the tutorial. Best thing about tutorials is refreshing your knowledge base. There where a few PS techniques I had neglected to use and since overlooked them in my day-to-day workflow. Some of the best results came from my photographer pal who says he gets good results in Camera Raw.

So, Combining techniques I managed to have some fun. Better yet, I look forward to integrating HDR in my design. Here are some of my experiments:

Back around the year 2000 I had taken some pictures of Gingerbread Houses at the my kids school holiday event. Playing around the next day, I took candid pictures of  my kids and dog. Well the dog just sat, but the kids had a good time. They kept asking questions. “Dad, why are we holding this basketball?” I’d tell them, “It’s not a basketball, it’s a giant gum drop.” The results of our photo session was this photo I like to post every year. Hope you enjoy it and Merry Christmas!

My kid are 17 and 20 years old now. Not so little anymore.